Czech Republic: Amendment to the Labour Code

A new amendment to the Czech Labour Code, which should introduce significant changes to remote work, delivery of specified documents, informing about the content of the employment relationship, and agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship, is currently in the legislative process. However, a large number of requirements for changes has already been submitted to this amendment, and therefore, its final wording is unpredictable at the moment.

The amendment introduces an explicit regulation of an agreement on remote work and its essential requirements, e.g., a place of remote work performance, a method of communication between employee and employer, a method of assigning work and its control, a method of ensuring safety and health protection at work. An entitlement of specified groups of employees to remote work, as well as an entitlement of all employees working remotely to flat-rate costs compensation, are also proposed in the amendment.

The amendment proposes that an employment agreement and agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship (i.e., an agreement on work activity and an agreement on work performance) could be concluded in an electronic form. As the form of the electronic signature is not specified, it would be possible to sign documents electronically in any form which is in compliance with the Czech Civil Code. The amendment proposes the employee´s right to withdraw from an electronically concluded agreement within 7 days of its electronic delivery at the latest unless the employee has already started performance of work.

The amendment proposes shortening the statutory period in which the employer is obliged to inform the employee in writing about his/her rights and obligations specified by law from one month to seven days from commencement of the employment. The amendment also expands the range of information about which the employer is obliged to inform the employee (e.g., a duration and conditions of probationary period, the mandatory procedure of the employer and the employee when terminating the employment relationship, the procedure in cases of invalid termination of employment, provision of professional development to the employee, etc.).

Employees performing work on the basis of agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship should get closer to the position of employees in an employment relationship, as they should be entitled to annual leave (if the legal conditions are met), time off in the case of obstacles to work on the side of employer, premium payments for work done on a public holiday, night work, work in an arduous environment and for work on Saturdays and/or on Sundays.

Before its adoption, the amendment may undergo further changes and will be subject to significant political and stakeholder´s discussion. Therefore, employers do not need to take any concrete steps yet.

The proposed amendment to the Czech Labour Code proposes, among others, the following changes:

• introduction of statutory requirements for an agreement on remote work;
• possibility of concluding/changing certain labour-law documents electronically;
• new requirements and changes of the obligation to inform employees;
• new rights for employees with agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship.